What is IoT?
In short, IoT refers to the generation and transmission of data via the Internet from small devices.
The exchange of data, in most cases, is done in real-time in order to provide an accurate and immediate user experience.
Some devices and applications that are related to the IoT world are:
- Home Automation
- Smart Watches
- Self-driving Car
However, it is not always about the bi-directional transmission of data, in some cases that data is also stored in a database to be analyzed at a later time.
Nowadays, IoT makes sense thanks to the technological progress we have reached, the components and above all, the micro-controllers are cheaper and easier to acquire.
A recent example of IoT is Apple’s Airtags, as they share geolocation information by communicating with other devices of the same brand to keep track of your stuff.
Another clear example is smartwatches that provide real-time information on heart rate, oxygen levels, even blood sugar levels.
Features of IoT devices:
As these devices tend to get smaller and smaller, power consumption and memory are limited and their use must be optimized.
In addition, unlike personal computers, IoT devices have a different hardware architecture where the microprocessor is replaced by a micro-controller. On the other hand, IoT devices usually run one task at a time to optimize resources.
As mentioned before, IoT devices capture data from the real world and send it to other devices or the internet, this is done using sensors that can capture information such as temperature, data extracted from sweat, and much more.
One of the particularities of the IoT world is that the programming languages used are almost always low-level languages, such as assembly or C, however, to prototype a hardware model you can use high-level languages such as javascript or python.
IoT is just starting, many companies are still researching IoT to automate processes and improve the quality of life of people, so if you want to start in IoT this is the time.
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